Interview:British-Pakistani Novelist Tariq Mehmood
UK Political Debate: Q & A with Tariq Mehmood Tariq Mehmood is a broadcaster, writer and filmmaker. His first two novels are both set in Bradford UK. He has published two illustrated books for children. Tariq co-directed the award winning documentary Injustice. He is the editor of Sangi, the only magazine in his mother tongue, Pothowari in UK. Tariq and Rock musician Aki Nawaz host the Political Show “The Point” in UK on sky satellite 836. Tariq is visiting Pakistan to cover current political situation. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Activism, Arts and Crafts, Books, Cinema, Citizens, culture, Democracy, Education, Europe, Fiction, Heritage, human rights, Identity, Images, India, Islam, Islamabad, journalism, Kashmir, Languages, Left, Literature, magazines, Media, minorities, movements, Music, New Writers, Pakistan, Politics, Religion, Society, south asia, Sufism, Travel, video, Writers, youth
Ifti Nasim: Muslim and Gay?
By Bradistan Calling Ifti Nasim also known as Iftikhar Nasim is a pioneering Pakistani gay poet who now lives in the U.S. He has written many books of poetry in Urdu and English languages. He has also written prose in both languages. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Activism, Arts and Crafts, Books, culture, Dance, Identity, men, minorities, Pakistan, Politics, Rights, sex, Urdu, USA, Writers
The Half-Burnt Cigarette : A Short Story
by Awais Aftab He took a puff of his cigarette, blew the smoke and observed with purposeless acuteness the amorphous wisps of smoke diffusing into the air, thinning out of existence. His lifted his gaze to a yellow taxi, a few cars ahead of his at the traffic signal, to make sure it was still there. ‘Yellow, yellow like guilt,’ he thought, taking another draw. His eyes fell on the rear-view mirror, and he saw a partial reflection of his own face: black, warm eyes; a handsome charming face in the early thirties. His wife, his former college fellow, had often told him how he used to be the crush of a dozen girls during the college days. He had felt a strange, meaningless pride in that revelation by his wife … Read entire article »
Filed under: Fiction, Literature, Pakistan, Writers
A neglected genius
Raza Rumi Whilst my earlier piece on the IMF programme and the tremendous discussion it has invoked deserves a rejoinder, I want to write on a completely different subject this week. I am perturbed by the fact that thousands of jobs have been recreated for those who were rightly or wrongly dismissed in the earlier dispensations; there is silence about one luminary, a towering one at that, who lost state employment twice. Fahmida Riaz’s name is … Read entire article »
Filed under: culture, Literature, poetry, Society, south asia, Urdu, Women, Writers
Our Rotten Souls
by Kashkin In abundance, this pain Unbearable and intolerable All here for you to see What is left of our remains? Our grandeur and purity Here you will find it all To your heart’s desire Here you will find it all For what we have created Our squalor, of misery and despair Chosen we have a dwelling From all what we have done Our deeds and our actions Residents, our rotten souls. In abundance, As we fall apart In this culture of gang rape As we kill our daughters As we kill our sisters As we beat them to death Blue and naked, As we appoint ourselves To serve justice, to serve peace … Read entire article »
Filed under: Citizens, Democracy, History, Islam, Media, Pakistan, poetry, Politics, Society, Writers
Ajoka Theatre and the Caucasian Chalk Circle
Raza Rumi Who is entitled to keep the child – one who is a better, nurturing mother, or the one who may be the natural mother but could not care for the child? The larger question then haunts the audience: who is entitled to ownership – the one who has the deed or the one who tills the land? Ajoka Theatre has revived a production that was first staged twenty … Read entire article »
Swat
Wrapped up in million stars this old sky, As they stare from little windows of existence From the wooden bridge, in the mountains As the mist rises in its colors of remembrance, There lies the valley, where beauty is suicidal There lies home, where protection is nature All in there, fleeting glance or permanence The old days of reflection, spent in between As they whisper, ode to change and for help … Read entire article »
Filed under: Citizens, History, Pakistan, poetry, Politics, Society, Writers
Ink Paper Think
by Asif Farrukhi and Sehba Sarwar Pushing back a wisp of slivery grey hair, veteran Punjabi and Urdu writer Farkhanda Lodhi says that she is recovered enough from a long bout of illness to be working on a new novel. ‘It is appearing in serial form in a Lahore-based monthly magazine and the title I have given is Jand Da Angiyar. It is such a stack of wood and the coal inside it is not easily extinguished. It keeps smouldering for a long time. This symbolises what I want to say in this novel. My subject is the living culture of the Punjab, the various attitudes prevalent there and the significance of women’s status. I think that it will be about 250 pages when completed and the same magazine will bring it … Read entire article »
Filed under: Literature, Punjabi, Writers
Aravind Adiga's novel 'The White Tiger' Wins 2008 Booker Prize
Soniah Kamal Anita Desai’s novels were being published in India in the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s, she says in her opinion piece in Outlook India, to no fanfare at all. Instead, rather than get excited about Indian writers writing in English, Indian readers continued reading Austen and Hardy and Wodehouse. It took major literary prizes awarded by the West, as well as big advances, for Indian readers to develop an interest and Indian-English writing (a trend which continues: it took Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger being long and short listed for the Booker Prize for it beginning to sell in India). Since then times have changed in many instances but this change comes with its own set of drawbacks. Were Adiga not short listed for the Booker and did not begin … Read entire article »
Filed under: Books, culture, Fiction, India, Literature, New Writers, Writers
Man At War With His Own Species
By Nasim Yousaf on Allama Mashriqi’s 120th Birth Anniversary “Man is perhaps the only species in Nature endlessly at war with his own species and he is doing this unnatural self-destruction…” — Allama Mashriqi Allama Mashriqi – reformer, scientist, philosopher, and visionary – dedicated his life to uniting mankind. While Mashriqi made countless efforts to this end through the course of his lifetime, this article presents five key examples which speak to his commitment to unity: (1) his Khaksar Movement’s ideology, (2) his speech at Indore (India) in 1938, (3) his efforts to keep India united, (4) his letter to scholars and scientists entitled the Human Problem, and (5) his Foreword to a book on Islamic Jurisprudence. An analysis of the aforementioned items provides a sufficient sample set with which to derive meaningful … Read entire article »
History and Interpretations:Communalism and Problems of Indian Historiography 4
Posted by Shaheryar Ali History and interpretation – Communalism and problems of historiography in India by Irfan Habib* IF one looks back at 1947 to find out in what ways it brought about changes in the approach to the medieval (that is, the post-ancient, pre-British, and, in much of earlier discourse, the ‘Muslim’) period of India’s history, a few major shifts of emphasis could, perhaps, be immediately identified. First of all, Partition meant that the two communalist camps, Hindu and Muslim, found two different ‘national’ homes. Until 1947 there had been a running debate between the advocates of the two communities. But with 1947, the Muslim side in the communal historical debate shifted entirely to Pakistan, where in its seemingly final version, the history of ‘Muslims in India’ was now projected as a struggle … Read entire article »
Literature is not a hobby — Iftikhar Arif
Naseer Ahmad Iftikhar Arif was catapulted into the spotlight in the 1970s when he appeared in PTV’s quiz programme Kasauti. As a bespectacled, sparkling young man, he mesmerised the millions of audience across the nation with the range of his knowledge and intelligence. With Obaidullah Baig and Quraishpur, both profound scholars, as his senior partners at the progamme, he would identify studio audience’s guessed personality, historical incident or structure by asking up to 20 questions. But few among his audience knew him as a poet. At PTV he was a scripts editor. But the thrill of appearing in a popular programme, when PTV was the only channel available to Pakistani audience, had swept his other attributes out of sight. In an interview with Dawn at Qasr-i-Naz last Sunday, he recalls how he … Read entire article »
Filed under: Languages, Literature, poetry, Urdu, Writers
SAJA Panel Discussion on the South Asian Blogosphere
SAJA BRIEFING: The South Asian Blogosphere and How Its Changing the Media 8:35pm Website: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja/2008/09/26/desiblogs The South Asian Journalists Association presents an online panel discussion among some of the best-known names in the South Asian blogosphere. They will discuss the state of the blogosphere (South Asian and otherwise) and how it is affecting how news and information about South Asia and the diaspora is gathered and shared. Sabahat Ashraf of iFaqeer; Anil Dash of AnilDash.com; Karthik of Uberdesi.com; Maria Giovanna of Filmiholic.com; Arun Venugopal of SAJAforum.org Technorati tags applicable to this post: iFaqeer – Blogging – South Asian Blogosphere – Indian Blogosphere – Pakistani Blogosphere … Read entire article »
Filed under: Blogging, journalism, Media, Pakistan, Society, Writers
A tribute to Ralph Russell – RIP
Shaheryar Ali “Not a famous man” Ralph Russell called himself in his autobiography “Findings, Keepings: Life, Communism and everything“. It’s quite an understatement. Anyone who loves Urdu and has any interest in the literary movements in Indian subcontinent knows Ralph Russell. He was one of those rare men who become legends in their life time. Ralph Russell spent all his life serving Urdu language. He popularized it , built structures and mechanisms of teaching Urdu in … Read entire article »
Filed under: Left, Literature, Urdu, Writers
Accepter la responsabilité
by Kashkin Many years they spent in control, Of our fates and dreams, Of all the time given to rectify The old mistakes, the old blunders Avoided they have, this responsibility Like those old fears, glued to bones Not a virtue they say “to accept” The years of guilt- in conscience and soul … Read entire article »
Filed under: Citizens, Democracy, Pakistan, poetry, Politics, Society, Writers
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